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An Integrated Systems Model of Construction Innovation in the Russian Federation
No full textConstruction is unquestionably one of the largest industry contributors to any national economy. However, the sector faces significant problems with long-term performance, productivity and competitiveness; it is also very diverse and fragmented. It is generally accepted that the industry worldwide does not have a coherent model of innovation development, is unwilling to innovate, does not invest in R&D sufficiently, and shows a conservative attitude towards mass inclusion of cutting-edge technology into construction processes. The Russian construction industry is no exception. The Russian construction industry development lags far behind the world in creating and disseminating building materials and technologies. To stay competitive, Russian domestic construction companies need to continue their innovative activities, in order to exploit existing technological opportunities, despite the difficult financial climate. A high level of innovation performance is extremely important for this industry growth and for the development of the Russian economy. Innovations include the use of new building materials, machinery, and engineering equipment that increase the quality of operations and customer satisfaction (e.g. energy-efficient, soundproofing materials). They also include new, efficient construction technologies and software for architectural and construction design that enable the achievement of higher productivity, and lower construction times such as Building Information Modelling and off-site fabrication.
This PhD study was founded on the innovation system approach which stresses that construction innovation is not limited by the boundary of a single construction company, but by a sectoral innovation system. In other words, the innovation performance of the industry depends not only on how individual firms perform in isolation, but on how they interact with other system actors (i.e. governments and academia) and contribute to the development and diffusion of innovations from a dynamic perspective. The theoretical framework developed for the Russian construction innovation system has a strong focus on these links between the government, industry and academia. Thus, creating a favourable environment for construction innovation is heavily dependent on government and construction companies. Moreover, construction innovation is also conditional upon the collaborative readiness of construction companies and research institutions to integrate their knowledge and expertise to maximise industry innovativeness.
The overarching goal of this research was to explore the dynamic complexities inherent in construction innovation through the formulation of a system dynamics (SD) simulation model that focuses on the challenging Russian Federation context. The SD model was the outcome of a purpose-built integrated participatory systems modelling (IPSM) approach. This comprehensive IPSM approach employed and integrated various data collection techniques, including, questionnaire surveys, face-to-face interviews, direct expert consultations, empirical structural analysis, and a series of stakeholder workshops.
A robustly developed SD model can help to address the challenges of transforming Russia’s construction industry into a highly developed sector by providing an understanding of how government policies and supportive programs could encourage industrialists to innovate, promote research and transfer technology. Such actions would ultimately improve industry innovativeness.
The SD model sought to also understand and encapsulate the innovation dynamics of two innovation development typologies, namely, imitators and innovators. Imitators represented construction firms that introduced and implemented technological innovations by adopting and/or adapting ideas from others, in terms of improved construction materials, techniques, construction methods, products and services. Innovators represented companies that implemented technological innovations as a result of collaborative R&D. Such companies are constantly involved in R&D and implement newly introduced (i.e. subjected to significant technological changes) construction materials, techniques, goods and services based on new technologies, or on the combination of new technologies with existing ones.
Overall, findings indicated that the Russian construction industry’s unwillingness to implement innovative technological advancements is primarily caused by the inability of the government to build an institutional, regulatory and legislative framework that would encourage firms to innovate. Among the key factors which hinder innovation processes are: the absence of a system of economic incentives for industrialists and research institutions; weak investment activity of construction companies due to a lack of funds; excessive administrative barriers; inappropriate technical regulation along with outdated construction norms and codes; a serious lack of research support; weak R&D collaboration between industry and academia; and conservative procurement methods. The SD model provided empirical evidence that effective strategies are required to overcome the challenges of transforming Russia’s construction industry into one which is highly innovative. The following factors might generate successful adoption of ground-breaking processes and products in the Russian construction industry: government support; client demand for innovation; access to information and knowledge for construction companies; and R&D collaboration. Hence, the number of imitators and innovators is only likely to increase if there is sufficient support for increased collaboration within the innovation system. Moreover, there is a need to improve procurement practises that would lead to increasing demand for high-quality construction goods and services.
The SD model was also utilised to derive an understanding of the Russian construction industry with regards to innovation development and diffusion within the context of four plausible transition scenarios (i.e. business as usual, market forces, conservative development and innovation power). Specifically, the transition scenarios were developed by considering the variation of two important but uncertain factors driving innovation in the construction sector, namely: (1) the conditions and level of government financial support; and (2) demand for innovation related to market expectations, largely dictated by traditional versus progressive procurement processes. Simulation results under alternative scenario settings revealed that industry transformation requires sustained and coordinated innovation diffusion strategies that engage all innovation stakeholders. One key finding was that the Russian construction industry shows preference for imitation-oriented innovation development. Even though construction innovation diffused more rapidly, and seeded more innovators than imitators for the innovation power transition scenario (whereby increasing government support was coupled with extensive reductions in barriers), it would still take time to develop a sufficient proportion of truly innovative companies. The market forces and state-led conservative development transition scenarios showed similar levels of innovation outcomes within the modelling horizon, but predominately yielded innovation imitators. Lastly, the extensive scenario analysis findings culminated in the formulation of both policy and practical recommendations for enhancing innovativeness in the Russian construction sector, for overcoming its excessive conservatism, and for shaping a successful industry transition into an innovative future.
In summary, this PhD thesis has made significant contributions to the theoretical, methodological and practical knowledge in the fields of construction innovation and systems modelling. The application of a systems approach to the analysis of construction innovation processes provided insights into both the complexity and inherent dynamics of innovation processes caused by multiple feedback loops, non-linearity, and time delays in decision-making. The IPSM modelling approach provides both a high degree of scientific rigour and an efficient participatory modelling procedure for building SD models. It can be used to deal with various problems where uncertainty in scientific knowledge, and lack of empirical data presents difficulties. Finally, the herein demonstrated concept of connecting a particular SD model for a particular system (i.e. construction innovation in this study) with that of macro industry transition scenarios, would be useful for government policy-makers to develop more fit-for-purpose strategies.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)School of Eng & Built EnvScience, Environment, Engineering and TechnologyFull Tex
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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